TwitterWatch -- Firefly vs Driftwood Campaign

Freedonia, CA--The 186th District Congressional contest turned ugly on Twitter this week as supporters for Otis B. Driftwood, challenger for the Congressional seat, began attacks against supporters of incumbent Rufus T. Firefly.

Driftwood, who has taken an early lead in state polls over Firefly, has not disavowed the actions of his supporters, saying that he could not believe that of his followers and instead hypothesized that it was Firefly promoters masquerading as affiliated with his campaign.

Twitter security teams today took the extraordinary step of deleting in excess of 30 accounts aligned with Driftwood, and published the following exchange from #Congressional186CA:

Gal4Rufus:
I'm onboard with #TeamRufusTFirefly. His debate performance was outstanding!

NotSoFast_Girlie:
Your candidate is a snake! OtisBDriftwood is miles ahead! RTF should leave the race NOW!

Gal4Rufus:
Rufus has a great record of action and policies--OBD's advisor Maggie Claypool thought the debate was great too.

NotSoFast_Girlie:
LOL, you think MClaypoo thought that? You're being played 2 make it easy to reel you losers in 2 our campaign when #TeamOtisB destroys you. Back OtisBDriftwood if you know what's good 4 you, ho!

When contacted for comment, the Firefly campaign acknowledged that event attendance and contributions had decreased as the online harassment had escalated, and were grateful for the intervention. The spokesperson for Driftwood denied any connection to the harassers, and simply reiterated that "it's a rough world out there--it's not our problem if users get their widdle feelings hurt."

Twitter has reportedly seen a 5x increase in reporting of abuse and account blocking associated with the 186th District's location and continues to monitor the situation.